Routines

Routines are so easy to fall into. Many times habits can form without us noticing. These habits and routines aren't always healthy or good for us. They're just things we always do - sometimes without even thinking about them. Sometimes we know they're not ideal, but we don't know exactly what to change in order to make things better.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the routines and daily habits we’ve formed in our household lately. This school year has brought a big change to my house - my daughter Evelyn has started kindergarten. We are homeschooling, so it has made me realize how many subconscious routines we have built into our day. Some of which are making it hard to find our “new normal” and fitting school into our day smoothly. For example, over time my children have come to expect that we eat meals in the living room. I know it’s not inherently bad, but it’s not ideal for every meal. Especially since the TV gets turned on more times than not. I didn't intentionally start that routine, but it formed. Turns out it’s hard to change things when half of the people in the house aren’t on board. And it’s certainly not a painless task to convince a 3 year old and 5 year old that we need to do things differently now. It’s not going to be a smooth and easy change - it’s going to take work (in this case mostly parenting work to convince my children that eating at the table is a good change).

I've also wondered many times if I should try to wake up earlier in the mornings to have some actual quiet time before my kids wake up - to read my Bible or to exercise. But every time I try it only lasts a few days before I get too tired or I get frustrated because my kids don't wake up at a consistent time in the mornings, so I can't guarantee I'll be awake before them. It doesn’t help that I’ve never once in my life been described as a morning person. My ideal time to wake up and roll out of bed would be 8:30 or 9am. Needless to say my children wake up earlier than that. All that to say I don’t typically make it a whole week before these big routine/habit changes fall through and I’m back to square one.

We also fall into routines and habits in our spiritual lives. We skip quiet times or devotions because we're tired or sick. And then all of a sudden you realize you haven't opened your Bible outside of Sunday morning in quite a while, even though we have Bible apps on our phones. Or sometimes attending church becomes something you physically do but you aren't really present emotionally or spiritually. Maybe you want to prioritize your prayer life, but it’s hard to find time because it’s not necessarily a time sensitive task so it feels like it can be put off whereas getting to work on time can’t be pushed off. These are hard things to admit to yourself. But God wants us to learn more about Him. He wants to be known. God can use you even when you don’t have ideal routines in place in your daily life. In fact, your weakness can be used to show God’s strength. How cool is that? When we can't do something on our own, the result is that much more awe-inspiring because we can clearly see God move and know with certainty that we couldn't have made it happen ourselves.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

So if we trust that God can help mold our hearts and motivation to break bad habits and routines that are not glorifying Him, we can be confident that He will guide us along the paths we are supposed to be on. Ask Him for help. Know that you can’t do it on your own, but don’t let that be discouraging. Let it be a prayer “I know I can’t do this on my own, God. I’ve tried and it didn’t work. Please mold me and change me. Work through me for your glory.” Now, this probably won’t be easy. Change hardly ever is. But we’ve all tried leaning on our own understanding and on our own abilities. And that normally doesn’t get us too far. I know it rarely works for me. And yet, I keep trying my way first. The Bible is clear: trusting God completely and submitting to Him works way better than relying on ourselves. Now this doesn’t magically change every daily habit, but it gives us a way to get there. It will take work to break down existing routines and put new ones in place. But it’s good work when the end result is glorifying to God. When we put in the effort to replace broken routines with purposeful growth - those are the intentional habits that will stick around.